Preparing for the High Holy Days: An Elul Series

Led virtually by Rabbi Ilyse S. Kramer
A 3-part Series

Wednesdays, August 31, September 7, 14    
7:00pm – 8:15pm

In her powerful, new book, God is Here: Reimagining the Divine, Rabbi Toba Spitzer teaches:

“In the West, there is a cluster of ideas that define what God is: big and awesome, holding ultimate power over us, a force for good. And even though Judaism, Christianity and Islam differ greatly on how explicit we can be about God’s human-like qualities, when we talk about God, we all tend to use similar human language to describe God’s actions and attributes: God knows, God loves, God judges, God gives and takes away life. Even if we vehemently don’t believe in God, the God we don’t believe in is an all-powerful, supposedly good person somewhere “up there.”

The problem is, many of us just can’t believe in a God like that. We reject the notion of a God that controls the world, and us, like a puppet master. We can’t believe in Someone whom we’re told is both all-powerful and all-good, because when we look around the world, or at our own lives, it’s very clear that there’s a whole lot of not-good there. So, either God is irrelevant, or not so good, or just not very plausible.

But what is vitally important to understand is that what we’ve been told is a description or definition of God is, in fact, a metaphor. Not a metaphor in the sense of a literary flourish or figure of speech, but a conceptual metaphor that actively shapes our lives…”

Join us for a discussion about old-new metaphors offered within Jewish Tradition itself: God as “Water,” God as “Rock of My Heart,” God as “Holy Fire” (and more…). Please purchase and read r’ Spitzer’s book ahead of time (if you can) in order to explore the variety of metaphors for opening new doors and pathways to experience God (Holy Blessings). Together, we will study the texts she presents—as well as—try out some of the meditation and chanting practices she suggests to further augment our experience of God’s presence and guidance in our lives. A most deep and beautiful book… to help guide us into the spiritual journeys of High Holy Day season.

To order God is Here: Reimagining the Divine, by Rabbi Toba Spitzer, click here to go to Amazon.